Gratitude And Community Matters

Hi Folks!

First thing first: That long term happiness study at Harvard that you've been hearing so much about? Just released some new findings, and wouldn't you know it?

‍Community = Happiness

Even more than health and wealth.

"Even for those of us with less-than-ideal genes," this recent article states, "thrown into a less than ideal environment, human connection is the trump card. So why are we forgetting to play it?"

Which is kinda cool, because here at FGP, deepening community has been our central mission this year. We remembered to play it and glad we did!

Stories of Appreciation

So in the spirit of sharing our appreciation for this community, a couple of recent stories from you folks.

As I mentioned last week in that update from the Canyons course, one group had to self-evacuate a team member with an ankle injury. What I didn't mention was that one of the folks who absolutely gave it his everything during that evac was Tanner Jannesky (a Camp Omega alum) and an elite motocross competitor.

Just this weekend, he raced in the Baja 1000, one of the world's hardest endurance races across incredibly rugged terrain.

Then this happened: (from Tanner's update to our Canyons Course WhatsApp thread)

"Hello everyone, thank you so much for the support for the Baja 1000. I really appreciate it. It’s indescribable how difficult and dangerous this race was. I stopped at mile 367 for over an hour to assist and call in a helicopter for a rider who hit a huge hidden rock and crashed and had 2 broken arms, broken shoulder, 7 broken ribs, broken neck, broken hip, etc. After helping the medic load him in the helicopter, all my tough competition passed me and were far ahead. Strangely, while I was slowing down from about 60mph, I hit the same hidden rock that the injured rider hit and crashed hard. My face was bleeding and the 270lb bike hurt my back when it landed on me. After that it was a brutal fight that took everything I had to chase down the best endurance desert riders in the world. The official results will be posted tomorrow, but we believe I won. Thanks again for your support! 🙏🏻"

Not only did he stop for over an hour to help a critically injured competitor, he ended up winning the race by an hour and a half on top of that all!

An athletic victory. A moral victory (setting aside winning to help). A spiritual victory (inspiring his Canyons team and hopefully everyone reading this, with the demonstrable power of Soul Force).

A Triple Crown. Huge congrats to Tanner and his family!

And if you want to check just how crazy this Baja 1000 is, check this movie that Tanner and his dad shot last year!

Another Tale.

Jesse Richman is one of the world's most respected kiteboarders. Nearly a decade ago, he won RedBull's King of the Air contest (the baddest ass contest on the planet). Trying to defend his title the next year, he boosted a massive 80' air and…fell like a stone from seven stories up, shattering both his legs.

Then after several years of rehab, training and placing top three but not winning, he regained his title in 2020.

Check this super fun podcast we did together, exploring the mythic levels of his quest, and how he's kept the stoke alive through all the ups and downs of a legendary career. 

But all that's not why I'm writing about him today. 

Along the way, Jesse fell in love, got married, and had a little baby girl. Just this past year, he publicly shared that his daughter Lou has a rare genetic condition, Angelman's Syndrome.

From his Instagram post:

‍"Lou, and most people with Angelman’s, have an incredibly happy demeanor, and I think they have a beautiful take on the world and what is most important about life; laughter is their primary form of auditory communication. Lou is nonverbal, and we are working super hard to get her walking. We also deal with frequent seizures, these are the common symptoms most people with Angelman Syndrome tend to have...

I also want all the other Angelman family’s to know that we are there with you and for you. If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together!"

Right now, Jesse is training with us in our Leading Through Fire course (he was last recorded throwing loops on our looping swing during the solar eclipse at Flow Camp in 2017). He's honing his skills as a leader of the North Kiteboarding Team, husband, father and now, spokesperson for the Angelman community.

His love of life, his stoke for the water and adventure, and his desire to show up fully for everyone in his world, is off the charts. And we're grateful he's part of our crew and in the world!

***

There are literally hundreds of others in this community. HomeGrown Humans doing rad shit, from the heart, with passion, creativity and service. (and please tell us about your own projects so we can give them shout outs!)

So as we scroll our newsfeeds we all know it's easy to get frustrated by the  overwhelming lack of humanity out there. But then, you take a moment, in the canyons, at our summer camp, in the mountains, or even over mighty Zoom calls, and you realize…

"there's more Makers than Haters. More sisters and brothers than Others."

Super grateful to know you all, and really glad you get the chance to live, learn and train together too.

Jeffersonian Dinner: Thanksgiving Edition

In that spirit, don't let Thanksgiving be an awkward stepping-on-landmines kind of soul death this year.

Let's dial back the clock and have a rocking and heartfelt breaking of bread, and giving of thanks.

Check out these prompts for a Thanksgiving Jeffersonian Dinner and write back to let us know how it goes. Three simple, fun questions, spaced out through the dinner, all designed to provide "communitas without the cringe."

Here's a bit of backstory and then the three questions:

Part of this game should you choose to play it is that everyone agrees to leave their phones in a basket by the door and engage in a “reenactment” of what Thanksgiving used to feel like a decade ago! Macy’s parades and football games still ok––just no internet or apps.

Thomas Jefferson used to invite 6-8 guests to his home at Monticello and then pose a series of three questions through the evening. He did this because he wanted to learn what interesting people thought about important topics so he could be better.

Unlike a normal dinner where you get stuck making small talk to the person on either side of you, at a Jeffersonian Dinner, you go around the table, one at a time with a guest answering the question of the moment while everyone else listens. (You can appoint one person to read the prompts).

All questions have been carefully designed to invite positive sharing and to avoid political landmines! (The moderator can throw a flag on the play if anyone slips into Facebook/Twitter rants and invite them to share something more personal, more vulnerable or more honest that is uniquely true for them).

Today is a day of giving thanks, so let’s do it properly!

If you’d like to lead this exercise at your dinner, read each section aloud to facilitate the discussion.

Appetizer Question: 

The poet Martin Prechtel once said, “Grief is praise, it is the way Love honors what it misses.” 

Is there someone (friend, family member, historical figure) who you miss or have grieved over losing, but now would like to take a moment to praise?

Complete the sentence: “I am grateful that [person’s name] lived, because they inspired me to…”

Main Course Question: 

George Leonard, a WWII bomber pilot and blackbelt Aikido master once said that when we face the challenges of life to remember to “take the hit as a gift!” –  meaning, take what might feel hard, or like a failure, and look for the silver lining that makes us stronger in the end.

Complete the sentence: “An experience I had that at first felt really challenging, but now I am grateful happened, because it helped me, was…”

Dessert Question: 

Look around the dinner table right now, taking in all the faces looking back at you and all the stories you’ve shared together.

What is the thing that you are most grateful for about this moment right now, right here, with everyone present on this day of giving thanks?

That's it from this end. Have a wonderful week, we're super grateful for the chance to be alive and kicking, with health, creativity and family. Celebrating at the Church of the Eternal Stoke.

Cheers

Jamie, Julie, Curt and the whole FGP team

PS. And from the “I’m blind as a bat, but now have sight” files…our friends at Neurohacker Collective have released a rad new supplement for vision––specifically helpful to “mono depth” screen blindness. That’s the condition that’s afflicting most of us from too much time staring at a screen 18 inches from our faces. We are binocular creatures, with eyes in the front of our faces (specifically so we can better judge distance and spear wooly mammoths). So this month I’ll be conducting a N=1 study where I’ll take Qualia Vision and see if I can leave my recently acquired reading spectacles on the bedside table where they belong! Wanna make it N=2?  Grab this code “FLOWGENOME” and pick up a bottle for an extra 15% off their current special.